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Percy XV

Ares's smirk turned into a scowl. He slumped in his throne.

"Com'on, don't move away from him!" the god groaned, rolling his eyes. "If he's really scaring you that much, push him down the hill!" 

Clarisse gave her father a disapproving frown.

Percy didn't care much about history, but he wondered whether landing here was a bad omen. He'd heard that most human civil wars started as fights between Greek and Roman demigods. Now they were standing on the site of one such battle. The entire city below them had been leveled on orders of a child of Ares.

"Exactly!" Jake readily agreed.

Nyssa eyed the son of Poseidon with disappointment.

"It's all in your heads." she told the boys. "There is no such thing as bad omen!"

"If there's such thing as monsters and gods, I think there's a possibility bad omen exists." her brother argued.

Nyssa sighed.

Percy could imagine some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood giving such a command. Clarisse La Rue, for instance, wouldn't hesitate. But he couldn't imagine Frank being so harsh.

"Of course he can't." Ares grumbled.

Clarisse shrugged. "Some people can't handle it."

"Anyway," Percy said, "let's try not to burn down the city this time."

"With you leading this? No promises." Thalia joked.

"Hey!" Percy said in mock hurt.

The coach looked disappointed. "All right. But where to?"

Does he really have to be disappointed? Grover shook his head.

Percy pointed toward downtown. "When in doubt, start in the middle."

Annabeth beamed. 

Yes! she silently cheered.

...The three of them headed to the presidential library—which turned out to be the Carter Center—

Annabeth smiled eagerly.

"I wish I was there." she said wistfully.

and asked the staff if they could call a taxi or give them directions to the nearest bus stop. Percy could have summoned Blackjack, but he was reluctant to ask the pegasus for help so soon after their last disaster. Frank didn't want to polymorph into anything. And besides, Percy was kind of hoping to travel like a regular mortal for a change.

"Sure, if you want to be boring." Leo teased, drumming his fingers on his knee.

"I gotta have some normality in my life every once in a while." Percy played along. "It's the only thing that stops me from going crazy."

One of the librarians, whose name was Esther, insisted on driving them personally. 

The demigods suddenly tensed. They stared at the book in disbelief.

Connor narrowed his eyes.

"What's wrong with her?" he said suspiciously. "She's too... nice..."

"She sounds like a monster." Annabeth said.

Hestia turned to them in shock.

"Or she could just be a good person?" the goddess suggested. She exchanged looks with the other gods. Some blinked back in confusion, others shared knowing grimaces.